Israel Policy Debate Not Just Secular vs Religious

(ABP) – Last week Glen Stassen and I released an “Open Letter to America’s Christian Zionists .” We claimed that out of a well-intentioned love of Israel, Christian Zionists are misreading Scripture and actually endangering Israel.

Christian Zionists yearn for Israel to gain total control of every square inch of the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean and they support current Israeli policies that have this effect. This theology marginalizes the Palestinian people into total insignificance and blesses their endless occupation and subjugation.

The misreading of God’s promises to Abraham is part of the problem, but another is a major strand of Scripture that says that God’s covenant with Israel requires Israel to do justice, and that persistent injustice risks evoking God’s judgment.